JOHN RICHARDSON is the author of A Life of Picasso (3 volumes; the first volume won the 1991 Whitbread Book of the Year Award), Sacred Monsters, Sacred Masters, and books on Edouard Manet and Georges Braque. Richardson was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth in 2012. He died in March 2019.

JED PERL is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books. His previous books include Magicians and Charlatans, Antoine's Alphabet, and New Art City, which was a New York Times Notable Book and an Atlantic Book of the Year. He lives in New York City.